Our Founder,
Patron and Trustees

Taylor Birchwood is an executive communications search firm committed to equal opportunities at work. Their mandate is to find the best person for a job. They oppose discrimination on the grounds of age, gender, sexuality, disability, religious belief, race or ethnicity.

All Taylor Birchwood employees contribute time to 
the Foundation, including mentoring and discipline-specific training sessions, and are assessed on their contribution each year.

Professor Dame Heather J. McGregor
DBE FRSE

Vice Principal of Heriot-Watt University Dubai

Professor Dame Heather J. McGregor DBE FRSE is the Provost and Vice Principal of Heriot-Watt University Dubai. Professor McGregor was previously the Executive Dean of the Edinburgh Business School, having held the post since 2016. Her earlier career was in investment banking and has spent 17 years as an entrepreneur leading her own executive search firm prior to her move into higher education. 

Professor McGregor is an experienced writer and broadcaster, including writing a column for the Financial Times for 17 years. She was the founder of the Taylor Bennett Foundation, www.taylorbennettfoundation.org which works to promote diversity in the communications industry, and a founding member of the steering committee of the 30% Club, which works to raise the representation of women at senior levels within publicly listed companies. Professor McGregor serves as the non-executive director of publicly listed companies in the United States. 

In 2021, Professor McGregor was among the first two people at Heriot-Watt University to be named a Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. She was awarded a CBE in the 2015 Queen’s Birthday Honours List in the UK for her services to business, especially diversity in the workplace. She was among the first to be made a Dame in the 2023 King’s New Years Honours List for her services to education, business and heritage in Scotland.